Dick, James
James Dick, father to Ben and grandfather to Beau Dick was a member of the Namgis First Nations. He lived in Alert Bay (Yalis), the northern tip of Vancouver Island close to the neighboring Kwakwaka’ wakw village of Kingcome Inlet.
The isolation of the remote villages slowed down the processes of cultural destruction, which had devastated many other villages on the coast. James, like many of the Kwakwaka’wakw master artists, including Willie Seaweed, Charlie James, and Mungo Martin as well as James’ son Benjamin and grandson Beau Dick carried the art and culture through the period of cultural assimilation and transition to become among the first carvers to receive recognition as artists beyond the cultural definition.